What makes a good fish food

Hi Everyone,

I would like to hear your thoughts on what makes a good fish food and what you are feeding your fish.

We get food sold by the gram and food sold by the liter! Some Foods of similar grams are in very different size containers!

Is it in the weight? Is in the protein contents etc... What makes a good fish food?

 

Well some foods obviously weigh less (each pellet, flake etc) such that they're able to float. Heavier pellets aren't neccesarily better, they just sink better.

The worst part is though that the more you pay for a food, generally the better it is. Tetra and Hikari both tend to empty your wallets out but my fish were always looking healthy, active and had good growth rates. Cheaper foods tend to be made of lower quality ingredients and foul the water, and are less nutritious. However, that's just a very broad generalization, as there are several exceptions to this idea.

What makes a fish food a good fish food depends on what kind of fish you're feeding. For example, some Malawi cichlids need a higher degree of vegetable matter (or nutrients that are found in such vegetable matter) than other cichlids, such as Jaguar cichlids, which are piscivorous (fish eating) and need high amounts of protein in their diet. Size also counts - big mouthed fish feed better with larger portions, and vice versa for small fish, and it leads to less food wastage.

 

As a rule - look at the ash content as well as the moisture content... These are things that does nothing for your fish,yet you pay for them - they are fillers...

Good brands are the 2 Tim mentioned,but consider Ocean Nutrition as well... awesome stuff!!!!

 

I have a friend in Welkom..... (who some of you dealers may know)..... who breeds fish exclussively..... (& I think he might be a multi millionaire)..... I've seen him feeding his gigantic Oscars with freshly hatched brine shrimp to condition them...... He believes in them and he has huge success.... I also do BS, but moreso for rearing of the fry...... IMO.... brine shrimp is great.

 

I feed my cichlids some floating pellets specifically made for cichlids and twice a week blood worms. Must say it is tough getting blood worms in Rustenburg, usually travel to Roodepoort area for them. Do agree with the other members thou on the info supplied by them.

 

Also agree that Bloodworms are great.

 

I feed alot of frozen food and I can see the difference to to feeding dried food

 

I firmly believe that "wet" foods can be fed exclusively, whereas flake foods have to be substituted every so often as "Air Bladder" diseases are caused by too much dried foods..... Just my experience and my opinion......

 

What about brands like Aqua-plus, Daro, Fish C ?

My Arowana came with Aqua-plus cichlid floating food sticks from previous owner and I cant get him to eat anything else not even the Aqua-plus koi pellets! Where as my swords and the others will eat anything I put in the tank they will even have a go at the pellets that are half there size...

 

As far as "Brands" are concerned @ jwalker .... Nothing beats Tetramin.... (Once again.... only my experience and conviction)... but I must admit..... they have gone beyond the price limits of justification....

 

Do you think Mysis wil work as betta fry food? I gave some to my fry tonite and they went nuts over it. MY LPS didnt have any fronzen BS and gave my mysis to try. Then I use TetraPrima for my betta's and guppies - they love it and I find a tub lasts me forever. Bloodworms is also used as a treat

 

Jwalker try him on live food I can't see an arowana ignoring a cricket.also can't fault tetra products

 

IMO variety makes a great :"fishfood'.
Try to vary as much as possible,even between different brands.
Look for freeze dried BS as this is a very convenient way of feeding BS.

 

As we say - Check the Ingredients - compare the ingredient list of OmegaOne with other brands - then lets have a chat about a good food

 

Have a look at my subforum for general feeding advice, because you cannot just feed one food and different fishes need fundamentally different diets, I mean meat eaters and plant eaters just want different levels of nutrition in their diets.

I would like to point out that brine shrimps, whether frozen or freshly hatched contain amino acids that are present only in very low amounts in other foods. They are sensitive to oxidation and for this reason are oxidized away from most dried foods. As a result a certain proportion of brine shrimps in any fish's diet is essential in my opinion.

Henk makes a very valid point in that he indicates to you that you should look at the ingredients on the label, but you should also look at the analysis of what is in the food (I think he is also meaning this) in order to decide whether a food is good or not. What you need to check on is the total protein content and very importantly the fat content. There are many brands that aim at a long shelf life and have for this reason tried to keep fats and oils as low as possible in their foods because they go rancid with time. What has become more and more clear from recent feeding trials is that fats and oils are essential nutrients for fishes. We must not think that because as humans we try as far as possible to not have fats and oils in the diet, that this is bad for fishes as well. Then in the oils that are incorporated in the food it is the Omega 3 and Omega 5 fatty acids (part of the fats), content that one needs in the food which is essential. In recent years, some of the discus granulates that I import and feed have changed and increased the content of fats and oils and of the Omega 3 and Omega 5 fatty acids and this results in a massive improvement of the general condition and health of discus but many other fishes as well.

Jacques also makes a very important point in stating that you need variety in the diet, feeding one food only is not a good thing. For advice on how to decide on what should be fed you can also look at the feeding article that I wrote in the "Ask the Professor" subforum.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks guys, for all the info and input.

I am with everyone that a good mixed diet including different brands etc... is needed.

Thats why I have been trying to get my Aro and friends to eat different types but he just sticks to the food he came with. Even mixed different pellets together to feed him and he will pick out his regular food. I think this comes from the fact that the previous owner only feed him this food.

I am sure thou that in time they will start eating the variety I am trying to introduce...

 

Its also good that they eat different foods since I see not all petshops keep all brands\types and at times you might have to buy them something else temporarily!

 

@azurekoi, so what about those foods packaged into clear plastic bags? Are they not to be considered since there is no nutritional info on them?

 

Those are generally Foods that a LFS buys in bulk,then packs down into smaller bags or containers to sell...in m oppinion... most of them are far inferior products to above mentioned good brands....

Not to say that you dont get good food in downsized packaging... Just not that often - Ask your lfs owner what the particular food is...

 

I was also wondering, is there a major difference between your round pellets that are generally green & red and the brown sticks that are generally brown?

Is there some major ingredient difference that comes with the colour and are red\green for pond fish while brown is from tropical fish?